The Storm Of Fire
by ChrisfromMars
Summary: Nico shadow travels him and his friends to Rome, where he meets one of the Fates stranded in the mortal world. She takes away his shadow traveling powers, and says she'll return them if he "gets her out of there". Meanwhile Percy has to deal with his Earthshaker half brothers who don't know friend and enemy apart. In all this confusion, the question still lingers. Storm, or Fire?
1. Chapter 1

_**This story takes place directly after the end of the book "The House of**_** Hades"**

**CHAPTER ONE **The Shadow Realm.

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Nico opened his eyes. The first thing he realized was the smell. Burnt metal and rotting meat. It reminded him of Leo. Suddenly memories came flooding back. Gaia, the Argo II, the quest, Percy... Nico was suddenly angry with himself for remembering things.  
His eyes started to work. When they did, he wished they would turn off again. He was looking at the black, starless sky. Hovering in it was a massive hourglass. One by one grains of sand fell from the top half, to the bottom. With each "thud" another person died. This was the hourglass counting down to the end of the world.

Nico sat up. He looked around. There were patches of black everywhere. They were the shadows. Were there were no shadows, there was a blinding light. Nico stood up. He hadn't moved from the entrance to the House of Hades in Greece where he had last seen Percy. But he was in shadow form. And he needed to move. Now. There was the sound of groaning behind him. Nico turned abruptly. There was a column of green glowing light, about half his size. Next to it was a purple column a little taller than him. Reyna and Hedge.

There are a few things you should know about the shadow realm. One, it always looks like the real world except everything in it looks dead. Trees have no leaves, the grass is black and stinks to Olympus, the sky is empty all except for the hourglass of Thanatos, and humans are nothing but their glowing life streams. Nico took in a deep breath, "you two, there will be time to snuggle latter, get up!" They stood up immediately.  
Reyna slowly drifted sideways, trailing purple light. "Am I underwater or something? Why am I moving so slow!?"  
Nico almost smirked. Almost. "I'm going to pull you along through this place, your job is to hold onto the Athena Parthenos."  
The green gob of light stood upright. "Right, because we've been strong enough to drag a thousand pound statue around this whole time! Nope, nothing unusual about that!" Nico wasn't very good with his temper, but today he found his friend's stupidity amusing. "First, its actually about three thousand pounds, at least, second, yeah you can."

Nico looked up at the towering Athena Parthenos,  
and willed it to be linked to Reyna and Hedge. A golden chain shot from the ground at the statue's feet, leaving a large crater in the ground. Suddenly, a hole appeared below the rim of the crater, the dirt that used to reside in it's place, crumpled to the bottom. Almost immediately another hole bored its way next to the first one. And another next to that, until the entire edge of the crater was ridged with the holes.

Almost as if the holes were the end of a pipe, a foul smelling black goo began to leak out of each of them, filling the crater. When the crater was filled, the goo hardened, and black grass peaked it's way to the surface. So basically, the shadow equivalent of the world, was a ball of goo growing mold spores. Nico hated being the son of Hades. Being close friends with Death, he often saw things the way they _really_ were. Even if they were supposed to be too horrid for his human brain to handle. Nico lifted his gaze from the crater, resting it on the golden chain hovering in the air. One end wrapped tightly around the leg of the Athena Parthenos, the other around both of his brain-numb companions.

Nico drifted over to the two glowing columns of light. When he spoke, they both changed to colors of alarm momentarily. They hadn't seen him approach. "Listen, focus on the chain, focus on holding it, and whatever you see, WHATEVER happens, do, NOT, scream."

The next few seconds were a blur of motion. He had willed Reyna and Hedge to bind with the glowing light that he had become. They soon became one white column. He drifted, slowly at first, then quickly. In less than 4 seconds, they were in a green field, the Parthenos standing beside them. Nico looked at the mossy hills that separated him from the cobble laden world of Rome. He couldn't remember the last few minutes, all he remembered was taking one last look at Percy, closing his eyes, and opening them here. His friends laid in the softly swaying grass beside him. He looked up, the sky was bright blue, the sun peeping in and out of the clouds. His knees buckled, _NO!_ He screamed inside, _I can't fall asleep here!_ They were out in the open, but sleep was gnawing it's way into Nico. He had to do something, fast. With all his might, he managed to summon 3 week skeletons, with painfully degraded Ivory swords. _It will have to do, _he thought. _Protect us,_ Nico willed, right before his eyes closed and he fell.

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**This is the first thing I've uploaded to fan fiction, so I don't expect it to be particularly good. If you found any issues with this please feel free to criticize, no need to hate. This is the first chapter of a long story, so stay tuned for later. Nico gets visited by a grumpy old lady, and Percy meets some new relatives... **

**Oh yeah, quick disclaimer, the only thing I own is the basic plot of THIS story. All themes, characters, and backgrounds belong to the genius behind them, Rick Riordan. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N This chapter is a bit longer, sorry if I make any mistakes. I'm posting this rather late and my brain is doing it's best "rage quit" impersonation. If I make any mistakes, feel free to point them out to me, and I will fix them. If I got anything wrong, please feel free to let me know. Thanks!**

**Sit back and relax, as I made this chapter longer.**

_Disclaimer, I don't own Percy Jackson.  
_

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Demigod dreams are bad, everyone knows that. But tonight, Nico didn't even know what was coming.  
The temperature was probably near (if not below) freezing. He was in a dark, narrow hallway. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of blocks of damp cobblestone. The air was a chill humid and smelled like mildew. Nico walked the length of the passage until he saw a dim, flickering yellow light. when he made it to the end of the hallway, the room widened to his left, and the ceiling stretched far above him. Torches, placed in metal holders, ran the length of the room. The floor was brown stone, and a circular carpet was laid in it's center. There were two things standing on the carpet. Nico heard the sound of metal scraping on metal. He realized it was a strangled voice, coming from one of the figures. The sound changed to a voice he could understand. It reminded him of the time he fell into icy cold water, while on one of his outings.

"Polybotes" the voice said. "Do you bring me what I asked for?" Another round of what sounded like metal scraping on metal. The watery voice snapped "POLYBOTES! CLEAR YOUR THROAT FOR THE LOVE OF-!" There was the loud sound of "ahem" and Nico could suddenly hear what was being said. "Mother Earth, my apologies, Tartarus tends to do that to you."  
The giant continued to speak, "But yes, I do have it." Polybotes went to the edge of the large room, disappearing into another hallway. When he came back, he was lifting a glass box with a hole in one end. The watery voice chuckled. "Hehe... What better way to kill the son of Poseidon than to drown him?" The voice continued to laugh, and Nico almost laughed as well, until he saw what was happening next. They giant took a large tube, and connected one end of the box, where the hole was. Looking up, towards the ceiling, Nico saw where the other end was connected, somewhere in the ceiling. Nico's face paled as he saw what the glass was being filled with. Blood.  
"What irony really, to see the son of the sea god drowned, and rather how fitting, to take the only person capable of insuring your demise Polybotes. All life comes from the sea they say, so how about we kill it?" Nico felt all the color draining from his face, he felt colder than usual, which wasn't good. He suddenly found himself soaking wet, and could hear the sound of a million monsters running toward him at once, the sound of a million fit pattering along the floor.  
Nico woke up. The sky that once was only partly cloudy was completely overcast. It was raining a freezing rain. Nico sat up, and saw his friends, they had been trying to wake him up. "Nico get up! This is no time to practice your sleeping beauty impersonation skills." That got him up. His head throbbed, as if he had dropped the Athena Parthenos on it. He looked around, and saw three piles of bones around him. At first he didn't realize that his friends held a look of terror on their faces, but when he saw it he immediately knew why. There was no time to turn around and grab his Stygian Iron sword at this point, but luckily it was overcast, meaning the shadows were all around him. In one quick motion, he caused the shadows to thicken around the sword, forcing it into the lighter area. He pushed it up from the ground and grabbed it as it flew towards him behind his back. Turning around he lifted his sword above his head, preparing to strike, when he stopped abruptly. Standing there was a boy, about the same age as Nico. He was completely unarmed, but if looks could kill, Nico would be having a chat with his father right now. "What the Hades are you doing in this pasture?" the boy said.

Nico immediately knew this kid was mortal. What he wasn't expecting is the next thing he said. "Put down the sword, or I may need to resort to force!" Nico was utterly speechless. Mortals that could see through the Mist were rare, but here was one standing next to him.  
The boy took something out of his pocket. It looked like a chain, but the chain links were made of bones. He began to murmur something under his breath. He closed his eyes, and Nico watched, stunned, as the sky went dark. Then as quickly as it had darkened, it stopped. The boy opened his eyes, put the chain away, and spoke. "Son of Hades, why have you come to my pasture? Are you here to reap the souls of my family? Well I'd like to let you know that you can try, but death won't claim us!" Nico was regaining his senses. He looked around and saw a flock of sheep in a pen, it had a roof shielding them from the rain. Nico spoke calmly. "Who are you?"  
The boy looked reluctant at first, but then said, "Cassius, keeper of the bridge" Nico looked around, looking for a bridge. "You idiot, not a physical bridge, the bridge between life and death, the bridge that you have to cross before even getting to the Doors of Death." The boy sighed. "You shouldn't be here, none of you should, especially not with that" at this he gestured to the Athena Parthenos. "I feel that thing giving off more power than a hundred nuclear bombs at once. Do you know what that feeling reminds me of? It reminds me of what the souls who come through here feel when they cross the bridge, and look back. They see their old lives, their old homes, they are leaving behind everything they love. Your statue is homesick, and she doesn't seem to be too happy about being in my field, so close to the point of no return." Nico was only staring. The boy wasn't giving off any energy at all what so ever, to even hint that he wasn't completely human. But then something tipped him off. It didn't feel like he was giving off any energy, because he was absorbing it. Nico realized that his own life force was being sucked away from him, slowly.  
Nico turned to his friends. "We need to move. Any idea's on how to get this statue out of here?" They both went wide eyed. "We thought you had that planned..." Nico shrugged, "I haven't gotten that far yet..." But Nico's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a giant footstep.  
Nico turned around, half expecting to see a Giant or a drakon. What he actually did see, wasn't even in the ballpark. In fact, it was exactly what Leo would've expected from the Parthenos. It was moving. It's feet automated. Nico heard gears turning, and for a seconds it looked like the statue was falling apart, stone falling in every direction. But it was what was beneath the stone that really shocked him. Underneath the falling stone, he saw a bronze statue, but the joints of the statue were gears, and the bronze appeared to be hollow, as Nico could see the mess of churning gears and pistons through gaps in what he could only assume to be armor. There was dust everywhere in the air. Nico coughed as he blinked some of it out of his eyes. It smelled like cement. Nico looked up, the sound of tumbling rubble all around him. So much oh what Nico had thought impossible, had happened in the past three minutes, that Nico wanted to find the "off" switch to his brain and go back to bed. Nico walked through the rubble, his friends standing behind him. Nico approached the stat- well, more of a robot now. The 50 foot tall robot looked down at him, gears and pistons churning. It spoke in a clear, but monotone voice.  
"The Son of Sleep will wait 'till dawn,  
to choose between power and pawn,  
the fire will burn, the storm will churn,  
to which the tides of life will turn,  
to choose between a loveless fate,  
or to be turned from all, and live in hate".

Each word she spoke burned itself into the ground in Ancient Greek. The then burn marks... rose form the ground. The next thing Nico could remember was screaming, and when he came to his senses again, he saw the words were burned into his palm. The statue began to shrink in size. She spoke again, this time not burning the ground. "A Giant can only be killed by a demigod and a god working together. Yet alas, here I am." Nico didn't know what she meant, but he didn't have time to consider her words, as she had finished shrinking. Still taller than Nico, though she was only seven feet tall. She ran at remarkable speed toward the busy town of Rome.

The stars twinkled quietly in the sky above them. The cool night air was gently blowing.  
Piper McLean had had one Hades of a day. For Hera's sake! Jason wasn't helping her mood either.  
As soon as Nico had left the area it hit her. The last thing that the Boy in the Shadows was looking at before he disappeared into the Shadow Realm, was Percy. She had often found that the last thing that a person looked at before they were about to travel away was the person or thing they cared about the most.  
'Of freaking course, I should have realized it sooner' Nico had always seemed like the type. And this explained why Jason was probably acting so weird after he got back from that trip with Nico. Something had happened to make Nico let the cat out of the bag. Speaking of the devil, Jason was currently flying around blasting several Venti with lightning, when she had instructed him not to raise attention. As Annabeth had pointed out previously, they didn't want a repeat of the Apennines. It took them nine days just to get out of Italy on the way here. Piper looked over the railing of the Argo II, lifting her Cornucopia. She shot a ventus with some greasy turkey, the oil in which, being a good conductor of electricity caused the storm spirit to overdo the burst of lightning he had been attempting to shoot, causing it do quietly fizzle into nothingness. "JASON GET YOUR-" her next words were lost in the wind, perhaps for the best. "-OVER HERE AND STOP USING LIGHTNING!" Jason flew back over the railing landing next to Piper. His eyes crackled with a dangerous spark that she was all too familiar with. It was one of the things about him that she still couldn't place. Why were his eyes always so energized, even in the mess hall early in the morning, when Jason was tired, she still saw her boyfriends eyes... Strangely energized.

Piper remembered earlier that day. She was supposed to take the day watch, but with every boom of thunder, she had to wake up. She also realized that she must talk in her sleep, because she had obviously tried to charm speak some of the objects in the room. It had been hard bringing Festus to life, but it was apparently easy to bring things like her knife, hairbrush, pillow, and blankets to life, if only for a few seconds. The difference was that Festus was alive for good, at least as good as Piper was. Another thing that was worrying her, as every day she woke up, she wondered if it might be her last. When she had finally fallen back to sleep, dreams were waiting.  
"Piper, welcome" said a chill voice. Piper looked around, expecting to see a hideous monster somewhere. Everything was pitch dark, she was standing in a black void. She couldn't see who was talking, but he continued. "Piper, don't fill your own mind with the illusion that your going to succeed. An image flashed in the dark. It was the image of the grass. Laying in the gently swaying grass was a chain, made out of bone. She saw drops of blood fall onto the chain, melting it.  
"Piper, why don't you abandon your mortal friends. Why would you want to be serving a group of gods who either spend their time warring with each other, or neglecting their children? Why would to follow either sets of gods? Join me with Gaia, you will never die, you will never have to fear abandonment, you will never be sent away because you are too dangerous. We can even save the boy Jason." Piper rose to her full height. "If you think I will help you to destroy the world, everything I know and care about, then you can just go-" The sound of thunder blocked out her voice, and she woke up.  
His voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Well am I just supposed to let them destroy the ship?" Piper groaned. Why did Jason love showing off with lightning? "Why don't you just tear them apart with the wind?"  
"Piper, controlling the wind is hard, every atom in the air wants to go a different direction, and keeping them all in check is hard to do, when I'm flying, I cause different parts of the wind to push all at once, not controlling one group of it." Piper thought for a while.  
"Well try to be quieter at least! Can you think of any alternatives to-" She was cut off by the sound of alarms going off (how many times was the going to freaking happen today?!). There were enemies approaching the Argo II, quickly. Leo burst through the doors going into the lower deck, and ran to the control panel at the back of the ship. His hands flew across the touch pad and the Wii controllers, but his eyes were adverted, misty, like he was lost in thought, letting his hands do the work. The ballistea aimed at an angle, and shot off the edge of the ship. There was a faint explosion in the distance, and the alarms turned off. Leo ran back through the doors, not acknowledging Piper or Jason. "He's been acting differently lately..." Piper said.  
Jason nodded. "The poor guy hasn't been acting the same after getting shot to gods know where by Khione."  
Piper didn't like to admit it, but she had heard an edge in his voice. She knew that he was still thinking about the second line in the second Great Prophecy. "To storm or fire the world must fall"

-  
Hazel would have made Hecate proud, though that wasn't her intention. Ever since she learned to control the Mist, she had been studying more and more about magic. She would have also made both Mars and Athena give her a (probably fatal) high five. She had been in her room, non stop absorbing any information that she could find. She had... Borrowed at least a hundred books from a shop run by some of Medea's minions with a little help from Piper at their last stop, concerning strategies, magic, ancient runes, wand casting, mirror manipulation, martial arts, sword fighting, archery, so on and so forth. To say the least, the shop was no longer in working condition. She had been delving through all these books in hopes to learn some kind of advantage to add to her skills. She had realized that manipulating the Mist had been a gateway art, opening her eyes. She realized that with that one skill, she had been able to turn the tides in that battle. She wasn't going to let her guard down again. She had one thing in mind, and that was,  
avenging her mother. She was bubbling with fury. She picked up a cylinder of redwood. It had been her third attempt at making a wand, which was basically just a way of channeling the energy that she had into a tight burst. Also, using an incantation would allow the energy to take form. She looked at the wand. She had inserted a small hole where she put thirty drops of her blood into the hollow of the wood, along with a cursed ruby she had smashed into dust. It had congealed over the last few hours, thanks to another trick she had learned. She had sealed the hole and had written ß?µa, the Greek word for cast, on it. She turned and faced a skeleton she had summoned. It was the skeleton of a chicken, in which she had asked for from Piper. She had fed the bones of the chicken the meat from... Itself, and had completed the summoning incantations she had often heard Nico mutter in his sleep. The chicken had connected all of it's joints and stood up. The bones moving around, lifelike.

Hazel pointed the wand at the chicken skeleton, fury in here eyes. She raised her wand, and she was remembering her mother's possessed voice, she flicked it and took in a breath, she was bringing down the cave and sinking the island, a red circle appeared around Hazel as she shouted in the Old Language "OBSTUPEFACIO!" A jet of wind shot from the end, and the skeleton shattered. She grinned. Gaia better have a good insurance plan, because Hazel was going to make sure that nobody would recognize her after Hazel was down with her. It was just then that she heard a knock on the door.

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**A/N Sorry if the scene with Hazel seemed inconvlusive or rushed. Also, this isn't a Harry Potter PJO crossover just because Hazel has a wand. Also, the "Old Language" is just Latin, and obstupefacio is "stun" in Latin, so I thought it would be cool, if the incantations were in a language that connects to Roman Mythology.**

**If I made a mistake or you have any suggestions feel free to review or PM me.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Two things. Sorry it took so bloody long for this to come out. I've had it stowed away for ages upon ages but never got around to uploading it. I'll read it again tomorrow to see that there's no spelling errors, but you may see them for now. Second thing, this contains kind of a heartbreaking/scary story in it, I'd advise anyone faint of heart to skip Cadman's back story. That's all I can say for now, enjoy!**

_Disclaimer, I do not own Percy Jackson, personally I'm not very supportive of slavery... Before you even ask, no I don't own Annabeth Chase either.  
_

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Percy looked up at the ceiling fan. He watched the blades slowly circle around the center. Percy was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep. There were two reasons for his problem, one, every time he closed his eyes he pictured the wastelands of Tartarus. Second, even if he could close his eyes for more than half a second, the "boom" of lightning would have woken him up every time he got close to sleep. Percy sighed. Why did Jason always use lightning? Percy couldn't remember much from when he was possessed by the eidolon and had fought Jason, but a thought had been itching at the back of his mind. If say, a fight were to break out between the two, would he really be able to defeat Jason? Percy shivered. He hadn't been able to think about it much when he was in Tartarus, and he was fast set on helping Annabeth get out of Arachnid's lair before that. But now he had nothing to distract him, except his own exhaustion. All he wanted to do was sleep, and not have nightmares about Tartarus, but he couldn't, because of the lightning. The ceiling fan in his room kept spinning. Leo had equipped it with the ability to transform into a robot with spinning razor blades, if there came a need for that. The lightning stopped again. Percy felt his eye lids starting to droop. But then something else hit him, worse than the pain and fear and exhaustion. Guilt. What kind of friend was he? He had had his life saved by a Giant who he had wiped of his memory, a kid who's sister died on his watch, and countless times before by other people to who he had done nothing in return. He had had his own memory wiped, and he knew how awful that was, yet he did just that to somebody who saved his life. To go with it all, he hardly had been able to say a proper thank you to Nico, if it weren't for him, Percy wouldn't undoubtedly be dead. The poor guy had gone through Tartarus by himself, alone, seeing Tartarus as it really was. Percy felt tears filling his eyes. But they weren't tears of sadness, joy, grief, or pain. They were tears of anger. Anger at the gods, at the monsters which had ruined his life, at the war between camps. Anger bubbling to his surface, he slowly fell asleep. That's when an explosion threw the ship sideways.

Percy fell against his wall, as it was apparently acting as the new floor. His ears rang, and he smelled smoke. He needed to wake everyone else up. But he heard a voice. Hazel and Annabeth were already on it. His door flew open, towards the ground. Percy was so disoriented, the door into the hallway was now on the floor. Percy fell through the door, landing on his feet. Leo ran past him, not giving Percy a second glance. "Everybody up now! Get above deck!" The ship began to level out again, but it was still tilted, so Percy was walking along the corner in between the hallway and the floor. He was quickly shuffling towards the mess hall, in single file with the others. When they got there, it was a mess. Wind spirits whipping around everywhere, scrambling to restore order. Tables and chairs were strewn across the length of the room and the glass screen which had displayed camp half blood was shattered. Percy saw Annabeth, who was in the front of the line, jump of the wall into the mess hall, sliding along the floor. She made her away along the wall to Percy's left, until she reached the opposite hallway. The tilted room was level enough for Annabeth to climb the now steep floor towards the hallway.

The rest of them followed, repeating as she had done. Percy heard the sound of the ballistea being fired and an explosion somewhere along the ground. Percy once again smelled smoke, and noticed how hot the floor was. He heard the sound of a loud bang. When he made it to the hallway, the ship was leveled out completely, but he felt a new sensation, the sensation of falling. Percy ran to the upper deck, to see the world getting gradually closer to the ground. They were slowly falling, most of the ores were destroyed and there were tendrils of smoke coiling around the edges of the ship. Percy looked over the railing and saw the hull was on fire. Leo yelled over the sound of the wind whipping around the edges of the ship. "Guys, as fun as hurtling towards an explosive death sounds, I could really be spending my leisurely time not dead. So I'm open to ideas here!" Annabeth was the first to speak, "Leo, did you think to install parachutes on this thing?" Percy looked to his left, towards the horizon, the sea glittering in the distance. It was a crazy idea, but he could hypothetically flood the area so that the water would catch them. But then he pushed the idea out of his mind, that would mean risking killing any innocent person below, which was something Percy wasn't willing to do. Luckily, he didn't need to think about it further, as Leo spoke up again.

"No, no I didn't, but we've got to come up with something!" Jason flew down from the clouds. "Um guys, the boat is on fire" all of the other six members spoke in unison, "We know!" Jason spoke again, "and you guys are going to hit the ground within a minute and a half" all five again yelled, "We know!" Jason stepped back. Annabeth spoke up, concentration embedded in her face, "The sails, we can use the sails as a makeshift parachute!" She was yelling over the roaring of the wind. Jason got ready to take off, but Annabeth stopped him. "No, flying around and undoing the sail from the mast will take way too long, Percy, you can control the sails right?" Percy mentally slapped himself for not thinking of it, he willed the sails to undo themselves, and to tie onto the masts horizontally, as opposed to vertical. The sails were long enough to stretch the distance between the two masts, and they made a double canopy over the most of the ship. And then, the wind caught. The sails filled with air, and all six members hit the deck at once, thrown from their own momentum. Slowly they all sat up. Percy looked over the railing. "That worked! We're falling much slower..." Percy's eyes went wide. "We're still going to crash land!" Jason fell over, his face contorted, holding the back of his neck, like it ached. The wind gusted all around the bottom of the boat, slowing it down. There was so much wind pressure that Percy felt his breath leave him in the vacuum that was created. And then it stopped, and they crashed into the ground.

Percy sat up, his vision blurred, his ears ringing, and his muscles sore. His friends were pulling him to his feet. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard Jason yelling "everyone off the ship now!" Leo took out the Wii remote from his back pocket, and pressed the 'A' button. An inflated mattress shot out the side of the ship, landing on the ground. One by one they jumped thirty feet onto it until they had all gotten off the ship. Leo started to yell "the engine! The engine is on fire!" Jason nodded, "Annabeth, Piper, Frank, guard the ship, Leo come with me we need to put out the fire! Percy, Hazel go see who shot us, I don't think anyone who was just messing around could do this, they will probably try to hunt us." Percy watched as Leo raised his hands toward the ship, large portions of fire being sucked into his hands. Jason flew around creating gusts of wind, causing areas to become smothered in air, and then reignite again. Percy turned away, and ran towards the area opposite of the crater in the hull, searching the horizon for any silhouettes.

Leo was annoyed with Jason's lack of knowledge about fire. In order for fire to burn, there needs to be three things, something dry to burn, air pressure, and oxygen. Leo followed Jason into the burning sick bay at the bottom of the ship, which they could see because there was a hole in the hull (No pun intended). Leo caused the fire to fly out the side of the ship, in large amounts. But it wasn't enough, it was slowly spreading. Then it happened, in a matter of seconds the ship tilted over and landed on it's side, the burning hole now facing the sky. Leo felt the air currents increase around him, and he flew up next to Jason. Jason flew them over to the hole in the ship, and they dropped in. Leo ran towards the main engine room at top speed. He was walking on the wall, because the ship was tilted over. The entrance was in the middle of the wall, which became a pain as the ship was on it's side. "Jason! Fly me into the engine room!" Jason complied. Leo flew into the engine room, the flames licking his fire proof clothes. He ran, tears almost falling into his eyes. He was going to make who ever did this pay. All his hard work... Leo sucked another cluster of fire into his palms. Jason flew past him, and the flames grew higher.

Leo was yelling over the roaring of the flames. "Jason stop! You're feeding the fire!" But Jason couldn't hear him. But both Jason and Leo turned when a roasted turkey flew past them. Leo turned to see Piper with her cornucopia, next to Annabeth. Standing above them, at the rim of the metal hole, they were beckoning for them to come. Leo was once again lifted into the air as Jason flew them both to the two. Annabeth spoke "Jason, you are only feeding the fire! I need you to summon storm clouds and lead them inside the ship to put out the flames, Leo keep up what you were doing". Leo saw Jason squint and clutch the back of his neck. Out of nowhere storm clouds started to form and fall from the sky. It began to pour heavily. It was working, except for where there were electrical fires, which Leo could handle. The problem was it was soaking wet now. Leo tugged on Jason's sleeve and pointed to an area. Jason caused the wind to fly Leo over to it, where Leo was hovering in the air. Leo caused the fire to dissipate. "Jason! I need to you undo the electrical currents in the water, I might get fried if my feet so much as skim a submerged wire!" With Jason getting rid of the electricity, and Leo the fires, the hull was soon completely safe, except for the flooding. But Leo had designed this ship to sail for Hephaestus's sake, he had installed a drainage system down here. Leo's face was wet, from the rain, and from the tears that was soaking his face. Festus's heart was badly damaged. Leo had always been attached to the metal dragon, but only in a mechanical way. But Piper had given him life, and because of that, Festus became a person special to him. Form the perspective of their attackers, they had only badly damaged the ship. But in the eyes of Leo, they had almost (if not more than almost) killed his friend. Leo quenched the fires that had formed in his hands, brushing the ashes off on his jacket.

Leo looked back at the soaking Argo II. Leo fell to his knees, engulfed in his own flames. He had spent months, almost a year, of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, and it was nearly destroyed in five minutes. Whoever did this was going to beg for his mercy. Leo stopped himself. The wall of fire he was generating was over ten feet high. He thought of Calypso, would she approve if she could see his thoughts? Leo was many things, but he wasn't a torturer. He wasn't going to kill a human or demigod, but he would happily torch any monsters he found. He just had to make sure he didn't lose control. Leo didn't want to become his own anger, that was the last thing he wanted. Leo sat up, exhausted. Jason walked over to him, the fire now completely extinguished. "Leo, buddy." Said Jason, putting his hand on Leo's shoulder. Jason yanked it away, blowing on his hand and dancing around saying "Hot hot hot hot hot!" Leo laughed weekly, "sorry, I'm still overheated". Jason opened his mouth, probably to ask Leo what was wrong, as Leo had sounded sad in his last sentence, but Leo spoke first. "Jason, the engine is badly damaged, the ores are destroyed, I don't know how long it's going to take to patch up this ship, could you go see if you can find a town? We'll need some extra parts." "Sure man, just don't blow yourself up or anything" said Jason with a smirk. With that he took to the sky, out of Leo's line of sight. Leo didn't notice how exhausted he really was, but then his knee's buckled and he fell, snoring before he even hit the ground.

Leo was standing in a green field. In the distance was a city with cobbled streets, cars zipping around and people walking everywhere. Leo recognized it at once, how could he forget the place where Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus. He turned away from Rome, and saw a pile of rubble. Leo wondered briefly what it was doing in the middle of this field, when he saw what it was. 'No!' thought Leo, 'how did it get here?! What happened to it?! Where's Nico, Reyna and coach Hedge?!' Leo turned towards Rome again, but instead of seeing the city in the distance, he was looking at something else. His entire surroundings were black, and he was facing the Earth, from space. Suddenly cracks appeared in the Earth, and formed into shapes. Leo thought of the millions of people dying just from something that seamed so small form where he was. The cracks took the shapes of eyes, and the eyes opened. "Hello, foolish pawn!" Said a cold voice. Then the world caught fire, and Leo woke up.

Percy could feel their attackers near the water. He often used the sea as an extra set of eyes, but something about that was bothering him. Not only was the sea bending at his will, but now it was also water. But his father wasn't the god of water, he was the god of the sea. Also, he was really freaked out about how far his powers had extended while he was in Tartarus, and remembered Annabeth's horrified scream as he had manipulated Akhlys by controlling the water in her own mist, which had acted as her blood. Percy shivered. He had heard a horror story at one of his schools once, about a witch who controlled children by controlling their blood. Percy started to wonder if he would eventually be able to control the clouds, because they were water as well. His feet pounded on the ground as he marched toward the sea. He could see two silhouettes in the distance. The looked human, or at least humanoid. Had Percy not had years of training he would have been smashed by the boulder that flew past him. As it was he had had only enough time to jump out of the way, the rock traveling so fast it broke the sound barrier. Percy's ears were ringing, he stood up shakily as the two people responsible drew nearer. He had just enough time to see Hazel take out a shaft of wood and point it at the two.  
"Relax" said one of the two. They looked like brothers, humans too. They wore red robes and spoke in an old accent that Percy couldn't place. They both had blonde hair that spiked in random directions, and both had dark green eyes. The second boy spoke up "which team are you working for? A dog of the gods maybe? Or perhaps a mindless slave of mud mouth, Gaea?" Percy was confused, they spoke as if they hated both the gods and Gaea. The first boy spoke up, "allow us to introduce ourselves, I am Cadman!" Said the first one loudly, his eyes were sparkling with an energy he had seen only in Leo, and his head tilted to the side slightly, as if his head was off balance. The second one, more quietly, said "I'm Cain, we are the sons of Poseidon, our outdated crab headed father." Percy spoke up, his voice scratchy, "nice dresses, one, Poseidon is my father too, and right now he needs our help. Two, isn't controlling the Earth either a Gaea or Hades thing?" The two boys didn't seem to take that lightly. They each placed both their index fingers to their foreheads and in an instant a wall of limestone rose, it looked about ten feet high and at least three feet thick. Worst of all, it was separating Percy from the sea.

"We are sons of the Earth Shaker! Poseidon isn't only the god of the sea, have you so easily forgotten what monsters of the underworld talk about in reverence? Those baby Telekhines we saw that passed through the underworld before falling into Tartarus, you know, the ones you killed? They spoke in reverence of how you shook the Earth, how you activated the volcano and killed them all." Percy once again felt dizzy, this wasn't the first time he'd felt bad for a monster. "We are kin Earth Shakers Percy Jackson, but we are better at it than you." Percy didn't know how these people knew his name, but he didn't think about it as he took out his ballpoint pen, but before he could uncap it there was a flash of light and his pen was sliced in two. The older brother was holding a long thin sword with a curve at the tip. The younger brother took out a quill, with a red plume and a sharp tip. He started pacing back and forth along the stone wall, which seemed to stretch infinitely along the shore. "All the sons of Poseidon seem to have similar weapons these days. We want to offer you a deal, your friends might want to hear about this."

"Gaea has a plan to destroy the gods in their weakest forms, casting them into Tartarus with a weapon so powerful the gods have kept it hidden for years. This weapon was being closely guarded by the gods, but with them in their current state, it has fallen out of their hands. Gaea plans to take it, activate it's full power to raise her, and with the weapon kill off the gods one by one." Here he paused. "Your friends have the combined skills to help us find that weapon. With it, we will be able to kill Gaea, and then the gods." Percy felt like he was on fire, a fire that he would toast these two with. "What makes you think any of us will help you kill our own parents? How can you be so sure that we will give up on saving the gods, 'just like that'?" The older brother started to laugh. The laugh continued until it grew into a full out fit of maniacal laughter. Then the laughing abruptly stopped. Percy heard a smack, then fell to the ground. His head throbbed, and when he looked up the older of the duo had his sword pointed directly at his face. "One, you don't really have a choice, two, even if you did, would you really continue to put up with the stupidity of the gods?" The blonde grabbed Percy by the shoulder and pulled him up. "Who are you people?" The younger brother walked up next to the older.  
"We are demigods, we were born in Poland, our mother died of disease a few years after we were born. We grew up in a foster home, until however Chiron found us and took us to camp, which at the time was called ? se?da t? s?a apa?e? ap? t? t?, or 'those forsaken by the Fates' The title was too long so later they shortened it to Camp Half Blood, which pretty much means the same thing. Nobody claimed us, so we were stuck in the Hermes cabin for years. Then, the camp was invaded, with no magical barrier at the time, it was easily taken. The gods did nothing to protect their children. We were two of the many, many casualties. And then Thanatos was captured. We escaped the Underworld, and then realized that over six hundred years had passed since our deaths. We found newspapers, and kept ourselves posted. We started to search for other demigods like ourselves, but almost all of you were in America. Our plan was to take revenge on the gods, but we had to wait for an opening. Then Gaea appeared to us, and told us that she had similar interests to us. But she sounded too much like a god for us to appreciate, we were done being treated like filth by an overlord who makes promises she or he can't keep. Gaea told us about the situation that the gods were in, and that she was looking for a weapon to destroy them. After she had told us the information, we ran. We heard of sighting of flying ships, and we tracked your path. All we needed were a group a demigods to fight along side us, and then our plan would be complete."  
Percy look a few moments to process this. These two hated the gods, hated Gaea, and were also his half brothers who died in the 1400's. Just an average person in Percy's life. Percy needed to form a plan, there was no way he was even going to consider helping these people, but he needed to get to the sea if he was going to have a chance at fighting them. An idea popped into his head, it was the same idea he had had when they were falling, but this time it wasn't nearly as dumb.  
Percy focused on the sound of the waves hitting the shore. He imagined the ocean getting larger, the tide rising to an extreme height. The waves started to sound louder, and closer. Percy couldn't let their attackers realize what he was doing, he needed to buy some time. "So, basically you guys are six hundred-year-old Polish demigods who are my half brothers, who want to kill the gods, and you don't want Gaea's help...?" They both nodded. "Why do you hate the gods? The world would be a wasteland without them!" The younger brother shook his heads. The older started to laugh hysterically again. "The world would be a-?" He fell over clutching his stomach, laughing so hard his face was turning red. "You think-?!" He almost fell over. He kept laughing for a long time before he finally sat up again and wiped the tears from his eyes.

But they no longer held the twinkly of mirth. Instead they boiled with hatred. "The world is going to be a burning wasteland because of them. They have enough power to destroy the Earth in an instant, even if it means killing their own kingdom. They have gotten extremely close before. They fight, neglect their children, abuse their power, treat everyone below them as mindless animals. The gods have been tricked into fighting themselves, they have punished unfairly, and they have shown time and time again to be unfit rulers. They are tyrants, and it's time they have been destroyed!" Percy was glad that their parents were probably too busy fighting with themselves to blast the two into smithereens. Not that it wouldn't be appreciated, but because of how close they were to Hazel and him. Percy was about to fall over, he felt sick, but not because he was sickened by what these two said, but that he feared they were right. "Do you know how I know this? About their cruelty? I was put into the Hermes cabin, and I crammed myself into my small spot of the floor every night. I went on numerous quests, trying to get my father, whoever he was, to claim me. My brother had no better luck, until the end. Night after night I sat on the roof of the Hermes cabin and cursed the gods, one after the other. I was a blasphemer to my own father. Then the camp was invaded. I woke to the smell of smoke and the sight of fire, I ran out to join the fight, but it was too late. Everywhere I looked demigods were dying, burning, or screaming in pain. The once beautiful camp was reduced into a smoldering battlefield in a matter of minutes. Then I realized that my father had claimed me. The green glowing Trident flashing above my head. I fell to my knees and pleaded the gods for forgiveness, and to save the camp. I ran from the battlefield and hid, I prayed for hours, listening to the sounds of demigods dying. Then nothing happened. I realized the reason that my father had claimed me, was that he knew I was about to die. I cursed the gods once more, and just sat there. It was at that moment that a cyclopes found me, he was soaked in blood from the other demigods, he was too gory to describe. He picked me up, and slammed me into the ground so hard I died on impact."

Percy was distraught. He had heard a first person account of another demigods death only twice before, both times he was deeply disturbed. Percy almost didn't want to ask, but he had to keep buying time. "What happened next?" The older brother's eyes were showing pure hatred, but his face and his voice were calm. "I pleaded Charon to let me stay in the lobby, but he was too busy laughing at the fact that he knew I was going to be punished to care. He dragged me into the judgement pavilion, where I begged for the fields of asphodel, but they denied me. I was sentenced to eternal punishment." Percy nearly threw up, but he was doing much better than Hazel, who actually did. She fell onto her knee's and clutched her stomach, shaking. "I-I'm so s-sorry..." She said. Percy was almost surprised by the fact that she felt bad for him, but he couldn't kid himself. Percy felt bad for this guy too. He couldn't imagine the pain that Cadman had gone through. And Hazel had spent years right next door to the Fields of Punishment, and she knew how horrifying it was, without even experiencing it. Hazel was crying, but she sat up and re aimed the wooden shaft, which obviously nobody was taking seriously. "And do you know what happened next? They dragged me through the gates of the Fields of Punishment, I screamed and cried the entire way. I watched other people around me being endlessly tortured. They took me to a run down hospital in the middle of a dead corn field. They took me into the emergency room and they strapped me down on an operating table. A surgeon in a bright blue suit wearing a face mask walked up to me. He said, 'you have been charged with blasphemy, a crime of the mouth. I will be teaching you a lesson on how to keep your mouth shut.' Percy was horrified, he could only suspect what had happened next. But Percy had bought enough time, the water was about to spill over the wall. Percy took a breath and screamed "Now Hazel!" as the water poured over the wall.  
"FRIGIDUS!" Screamed Hazel as she swiped the wooden shaft through the air. Percy was astonished when a beam of air shot out of it, hitting Cadman. Percy controlled the salty water to tear apart the wall, and beat violently against the two. The younger brother, Cain, rose an Earthen pillar from the ground at an angle beneath his feet. "Follow me brother!" He said. When the pillar stopped rising, Cain flew off to Percy's left, then drew out another pillar from the ground at the same angle at a different spot. Doing this, Cain flew away far before Cadman even got off the ground. Long, long before then.  
Percy realize that Cadman had fallen in the water and was drowning. Percy commanded the water to recede from him, it stopped in a wall of water above them. Hazel was just inches from it. Percy looked at Cadman, he was shivering violently, his teeth clacking rapidly. "What's going on? That water wasn't very cold." Hazel spoke up, "It was me, I cast a spell on him, he's too cold to do anything right now, but it's only an illusion. Want me to undo it?" Percy rose an eyebrow. "Spells? Isn't that a Hecate thing?" Hazel rolled her eyes. Percy almost chuckled, but he was too shaken by the story. "No, if it's just an illusion, we need to get him locked up first before you give him back his strength." Hazel nodded and pointed the stick at Cadman once again. "supervolito!" Cadman began to hover through the air, and drift towards the ship.


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, here it finally is. I had to rewrite this entire chapter a few times, but it's finally here! :D**

**Enjoy!**

Running wasn't Nico's favorite activity, but as a demigod, there's no use complaining about it. As he chased the robotic creature in front of him, he was suddenly thankful that he'd kept himself in shape over the years. He looked to his left. Hedge was running beside him, but it looked like he was purposefully going slow to stay at the groups pace. Looking to his right Reyna was running as fast as she could to keep up. The difference in speeds told Nico there must've been a much faster way to do this. Nico bolted right past the animal pen where that weird kid Cassius kept his sheep. As he did however he thought he saw one bare it's fangs at him. Had the sheep done that a millisecond later, Nico would never have noticed. "Stop!" He yelled. Reyna stopped, Hedge shot daggers at him with his eyes.

"What are we stopping for, that statue is going to tear through the entirety of Rome if we don't hurry up."

"That statue is going to tear through it anyways if we continue at a pace like this" Nico replied.

"Is there really anything we can do about it right now Nico?" Asked Reyna. Nico grinned and turned towards the cage.

...

A Few moments later Reyna and Nico were barreling down the hill towards the bustling city of Rome on the back of an angry bloodthirsty sheep chasing Coach Hedge, as arrows whizzed past their ears.

"How the actual hell did you manage to get us into this situation Nico? Enlighten me."

"Hey! When Percy was talking about how he'd snuck into Polyphemus' cave hiding on the belly of one of these, I pictured that they'd be much easier to work with! At the time it seemed like a great idea to use the coach as a lure... I didn't think Cassius would mind so much about one sheep!" Nico had to yell over the roaring sound of the wind. Nico heard the bowstring of Cassius's bow fire another arrow. The sound seemed to echo as if we was in a tunnel. Suddenly time seemed to slow down. He could feel something zipping through the air, leaving a dark shadow across the ground as it traveled towards the back of his neck. Almost entirely instinctively he turned around and snatched it out of the air before it could hit him. Only a second later did he realize what he'd actually done.

"Holy crap!" Nico exclaimed.

"What?" Reyna looked over at him.

"I caught this arrow out of the air before it hit me..." He replied.

Reyna's eyes shone with shock and amazement. But before she could say anything the sheep they were riding on jumped three feet in the air over a fence that separated the grassy hill from the busy Roman city. They landed on the hard cement, the impact winding them both. Looking ahead Nico saw the trail of destruction that the Athena Parthenos was leaving. Buildings were completely smashed opened and people were frantically scrambling away from the rubble. Nico saw the unfortunate few who didn't have time to get out of the way. He averted his eyes but, being the son of Hades, still felt the strong scent of death as they flew past him. The row of destruction to his left, and the monotone red buildings to his right, along with the rapid fire "clip clop" of the man-eating sheep's hooves sent Nico into a sort of trance. The Athena Parthenos taking a simple run caused so much devastation and chaos. It reminded him of the very nature of the gods. Instead of being very careful and knowing that with a few swift moves they could destroy the world, they were reckless and destroyed things left and right. Nico, not for the first time, wondered why they were really helping the gods. Annabeth had always tried to be an optimist when Nico first brought it up to her. The exact conversation had gone like this.

"Annabeth, if the gods don't even care about us then why are we even helping them?!"

"Nico, don't say that, I'm sure your dad cares about you! You need to calm down."

"My father used me! He tricked me into bringing Percy down to Hades so that he could kill him! He didn't even help when Bianca died..." At this Nico had slumped down and looked away. Annabeth sat down next to him.

"The gods are ages and ages old, they've seen their kids die in horrible ways no matter how hard they try to save them. The Fates are to blame, not the gods." She said softly.

"Yeah, well I don't really believe in a predeclared future" Nico replied bitterly.

"Whether you believe the Fates are real or not-" Annabeth was cut off by Nico yelling,

"Of course I know the Fates are real! Of course we have prophecies and fortune tellers and predictions! But no matter what they 'say' will happen there's always a choice on how to make that prophecy come true! You always say prophecies have multiple meanings! It could have been one of the immortal hunters who died in that junkyard and the prophecy would still have been true! If I was a god, I wouldn't give a damn the likelihood of my kids surviving! Regardless of what the Fates said, I would still keep trying." At this Nico had stormed out of sing-along campfire area, leaving the flames flickering a deadly black flame that extinguished as soon as Nico left. They had had bad weather all week after that.

Nico was abruptly dragged from his memories by the blood thirsty sheep-thing making a huge turn, causing it's entire body to sway. Nico had to hold on tightly to stay on it. Nico realized they still hadn't caught the Athena Parthenos yet, and started to form another plan. "As soon as coach Hedge jumps, roll off the sheep!" Nico yelled. Before Reyna had to time say "What?!" Nico yelled "JUMP!" To Hedge, who obeyed, and jumped five feet into the air as the sheep ran underneath him. Nico stood up on the rocket-sheep and drew his sword as Reyna rolled off to the side. Then Nico jumped straight into the air. The sheep moved out from under him as he brought his sword down upon the sheep's rear, causing it to- surprisingly -roar like a dragon. It bolted forward like a bullet and rammed into the Parthenos, causing it to stop for a second to see what hit it. Nico then held his ears and concentrated. A wall of shadow exploded from the ground in front of the Parthenos, who attempted to swat at it. As soon as the robot did this, it's hand paralyzed and stuck against the wall as if it was sticky paper. At this point Nico had no idea where the sheep was, so he kept his sword drawn. To make matters worse the sky immediately darkened, and he heard the sound of wind chimes all around him. Cassius was getting close.

"Er, excuse me!" yelled Nico.

The robot turned. When it spoke, it was no longer robotic like before, instead it sounded almost indistinguishable from Athena's voice, or at least what Nico figured it would have sounded like. "I'm busy, mortal, you're lucky I haven't found an energy source yet, or I'd fry you on the spot".

Nico paled, but nobody noticed because he was already paper white. "Look, er, miss. All we want of you is to transport you to your people so we can protect them, they're kind of in danger from the army of New Rome, which I'm sure you despise."

Nico's sensed a shadow moving at the speed of a bullet behind him. He had just enough time to turn around and hold up his sword, blocking an arrow that was flying towards him. The sound of wind chimes was extremely strong, and the wind was blowing violently. "Cassius" said the Parthenos.

"You know the rules, as I'm sure you've been programed with them. Anyone who trespasses The Bridge or steals one of my soul eaters is free game to kill, the gods can't get involved!"

"You may be able to tell, I'm not a god." The robot replied, ripping it's arm from the shadow wall, leaving a gap in it where it's arm used to be. It waked over to where Cassius was standing and looked down at him.  
It spoke to Cassius saying "I'll give you one warning shepherd, get out of my sight, or face the consequences." Cassius pulled an arrow from his quiver.

"Under normal circumstances I'd know that right now is a time that I should back down" Cassius said, deadly quiet. "But I understand that you haven't found a power source strong enough to unleash your deadliest attack, so I'm going to call your bluff, you're going to step aside, and Nico Di Angelo is going to die"

The Athena Parthenos bent over and looked Cassius straight into the eye. "You miscalculated" and then pushed the arm that had the shadows still stuck on it, into him. Cassius immediately got stuck on the robots arm and it stood up. In a few quick seconds the Parthenos raised it's arm, and slammed into into the ground, then stepped back. Cassius didn't splatter like Nico had feared, instead he seemed to shatter like glass. Nico didn't see any blood anywhere, and when he looked at Cassius his eyes held a peaceful expression. Suddenly he turned the color of gold, and fell into a million shards. The shards began to shimmer and dissolve into golden light. It reminded him of the story that Percy told about his mother when she was taken from him by the Minotaur. The light slowly faded, leaving no trace of Cassius behind. Nico was speechless. It was a sad, but beautiful sight. Slowly the sky lit up again, but the faint sound of wind chimes could still be heard for a few moments, until it too faded away. Nico didn't realize how quiet everything was, until the pandemonium started back up again. The stunned mortals started to recover from their shock, and were now starting to panic again. Nico heard police sirens go off in the distance. "Reyna, Hedge, regroup!" Nico called. They ran over to him. "Robot-lady-person!" Nico called. "You need to come with us, this is Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, she is the praetor of New Rome, and wishes to peacefully return you to the Greeks."

The robot turned. "Why would a Roman want to give up their pride and return the statue after so long?"

"As an offering of peace, there's no way we demigods can survive the rise of Gaea and her giants if we don't stop fighting each other and work together. The gods are completely defenseless unless the Romans and the Greeks stop fighting." Reyna responded.

The robot appeared to be pondering this. "Fine, climb on my back, we shall head to Greece at once."

"Actually," Reyna said. "The Greek demigods aren't in Greece anymore... They are mostly all in North America now."

The Athena Parthenos scanned the group. "If you were lying, I'd be able to tell. Very well then, you are either telling the truth or you are insane. We should shadow travel to this North America at once."

Nico sighed in relief. He had feared that the Athena Parthenos might not have been as cooperative as it was being now. "One thing before we go. What is this thing that you burned into my hand?" Nico took out his left hand, it still hurt, but it wasn't a normal burn.

The robot bent over and studied his hand. "It's a prophecy, awfully outdated, and most likely has come true by now, it should come out with water." Nico once again sighed in relief. Maybe his luck was _finally_ turning good.

"Okay everyone, gather around as close as you can, we're going to shadow travel back home!" Everyone did as so. Nico closed his eyes and concentrated hard. The wind started to pick up, he felt everything starting to blur into shadow, and then, nothing happened. Nico opened his eyes, he was still standing in the middle of the street, with the police sirens getting closer and closer, and the mortals getting more and more panicked.

"What the heck?" Nico said.

"Whats wrong?" Reyna asked.

"Get a move on it kid! Why can't you shadow travel us out of this place?!" Hedge yelled.

"Because" Said a female voice behind them, dripping with malice, "of me."

Sorry I took so long with bringing this back out. There was a huge plot incompatibility that added up in the last few chapters that I had to sort out. I'll have a new chapter out by next week. If you like this story please feel free to review :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, it's finally here. Hopefully you guys like it, it's not really all that long, compared to my other chapters, but hopefully you'll still enjoy it. Buckle up, because it's going to be a bumpy ride :D**

**Also, sorry for reuploading this chapter, I keep finding emberrassing or confusing mistakes.**

**One more thing, if you have any music that fits the mood to parts of this story, I recommend listening to it, it's really good for reading.**

**Without further a do, here is chapter five of The Storm of Fire.**

* * *

Annabeth realized that if she'd ever had anything by her side longer than Percy, it would have been her dagger. Annabeth plucked it out from the wall and put it back in it's sheath by her side.

"Annabeth," said a light voice above her. Looking up, Annabeth saw Hazel standing in the hole that had been blasted apart  
by either Cassius or his brother.

"Yes?" replied Annabeth.

"It's my turn to guard Cadman, you look like you need some fresh air," said Hazel.

"Okay, thanks," Annabeth said.

Getting up, she walked over to the rope ladder that hung over the side of the hole. Hazel jumped down into the room as Annabeth crawled out.

Looking up, Annabeth saw the night sky. She quickly found the constellation that had formed when Zoe had died. "Hey, stars." Said Annabeth, in memorial for both Bob and Zoe. She started walking quickly along the side of the Argo II because she felt the danger of crying creep up on her. The starts were beautiful, twinkling like a million white candle flames in the clear skies, but it was too painful to look at them. "Get a grip Annabeth" she scolded herself. Annabeth walked to the very edge and sat down. From here she could see about a mile leading to the sea, and many more miles of sea beyond that. The sea always calmed Annabeth, because she knew that as long as she was near it, Percy would be able to find her. She often thought that the only way that she'd be able to survive without Percy is if she was a hallow body who only needed food and water and air. Annabeth didn't see a point in living if that was how life played out. But, though she still loved Percy, he had began to scare her. Something changed in Percy down in Tartarus. She'd seem something snap in him, and for a moment he'd become a cold and remorseless entity, controlling Akhyles from the inside.

Annabeth had started to wonder a lot about Percy's abilities since then. Technically clouds were in Zeus' domain, but they were mostly water, and Percy should be able to easily control them. But then a thought had occurred to her, one that had kept her up for several nights in a row. Blood was 75% water, what if... Annabeth slapped herself to get the thought away, as if it was a wasp that had stung her. She couldn't think that he'd be capable of such power. "Not morally" Annabeth amended out loud. It was then that an explosion and a blast of light came from the forest to her left and Percy ran out, holding what appeared to be a to-go box and a bag that said "Monster Donuts" on it.

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled, as Frank ran out of the forest behind of Percy. "I found food!"

Percy was walking through the forest, looking for some animal to hunt, or something to eat. They were in the forest, searching. They'd lost most of their food in the attack, and Percy was struggling to find anything else to eat. Frank had turned into a bloodhound half an hour ago saying he smelled something, and ran off into the woods. Percy had started to get worried, but then realized that it was for any monsters that could be nearby. Frank was a formidable war machine nowadays. Percy chuckled to himself. Mars sure did know how to gift his children. Then Percy thought of Clarisse, and brushed the thought off. "Frank's just awesome," Percy concluded. Percy thought of Annabeth back at the ship, and for the millionth time wished he was back at the ship, or that she was here. He'd end up getting captured or killed without her brains to save his sorry hide. Percy wondered how he'd even survived the times when she wasn't by his side. With a grimace he remembered the cannibal giants (he'd long since stopped trying to remember their names) and how that had turned out. Percy's thoughts were interrupted by a bloodhound bursting from the forest whilst turning into a man mid run. "Percy! I'll bet you twenty dollars you'll never believe what I found!"

Percy handed Frank a twenty dollar bill. "You were right dude, I didn't see this coming." Frank stared at the fast food restaurant in the middle of the forest. In large letters the words "Monster Donuts 'n co" were written above the shop. "You do realize that there's a nest of monsters congregating in that shop, right Frank?" Frank smiled. "Well they're about to have two new customers.

...

"Please, for the love of the gods Frank, tell me you are joking," Said Percy looking down at the makeshift costume that he was wearing made entirely from seaweed. Frank morphed into a small dragon and back again. "Don't worry Percy, they won't be able to tell your a demigod!"

"Oh really? Have you forgotten that they can _smell_ demigods from miles away? It's a miracle they haven't found us yet."

Frank sighed. "Ye of little faith. Stand there for a second, this is going to be really gross, so hold your breath. With that, Frank turned into a dragon. "What are you..." Percy started. However his sentence wasn't finished, as it was then that Frank sneezed, and Percy was covered in dragon snot. "Ewww!" Complained Percy as Frank changed back into a human. "Dude this is disgusting!"

"Sorry Percy," Apologized Frank. "They won't be able to smell you now, and your costume looks even more convincing this way!" Percy punched Frank in the arm, hard.

"Come on, lets just go get some donuts for the ship."

Percy stepped into the air conditioned shop. Immediately the smell of donuts reached him, though he wasn't sure how, considering the disgusting smell of dragon snot should have blocked it out completely. He looked to his left, Frank had turned into a very small dragon and was walking alongside Percy. Percy walked in between an assortment of tables and chairs, each seat containing a monster. Percy had to fight down the urge to run, this had to be the most anti-Annabeth (stupid) plan ever, and walked straight up to the counter, Frank standing right next to him. "Eh hello?" said Percy, trying to sound like a monster. Immediately a Scythian Dracaena popped up at the counter. "You sssmell funny" she said. Percy glared at Frank, but looked back to the cashier. "Um, two bags of donuts please." The snake-lady, still glaring at him suspiciously, bent under the desk. When her head reappeared she was holding two bags filled with donuts, and a to-go box. Percy took the items and handed her five golden drachmas. She looked down at them and grinned. "Monssstersss don't ussse the currencccy of the godsss, Perssseusss Jackssson." And then every monster in the shop jumped towards them.

"Run faster!" Percy yelled to Frank, as they left the burning donut shop behind. Frank had had only a few seconds to think before he decided the torch the entire place with dragon breath. Percy tore off the seaweed and snot as he ran. He made the mistake of looking behind him and saw that the forest was filled with creatures ripping towards him, more than twenty donut shops could have held. There were countless amounts, hellhounds, telkhines, snake ladies, cyclopsis, several empousa, and a few centaurs who obviously worked for Gaea. There was a roar, and a burst of flames behind him, and for a second, Percy thought that it was Leo, but turning around he saw that it was a drakon, galloping through the forest. "Crap, Frank, I think you'll have to dish it out with that one when he gets here." Percy said. Arrows flew past them, and trees zipped by like fireflies. Some of the trees burst into flames as arrows lit with Greek fire hit them. "I see our ship up ahead!" Frank yelled. Percy's lungs burned and his legs screamed, but it was dulled by the massive adrenaline of both running from monsters and getting closer to the sea. They finally burst out of the forest, and Percy looked up at the looming Argo II, and saw that Annabeth was standing on the side of it. Warmth rushed into Percy at the sight of seeing her, and also because of the Greek fire that missed him by an inch. Holding up one of the bags of donuts, he yelled "Hey Annabeth! I found some food!" Just as the army of monsters ran out behind him.

Annabeth did a double take. There were more monsters chasing Percy than she'd ever seen in her life, well except for when they had been in Tartarus. Annabeth winced at the thought, and broke into a run. As she got closer to the hole, she heard a frantic sounding Hazel yelling something. "What do you mean they've come to take you back! Whats wrong with you?! Are you okay?!" Annabeth jumped into the hole and winced as she landed on the foot she'd broken in Arachnids lair, though only out of habit, because her foot didn't really hurt anymore. She whipped around taking out her knife. "Hazel! We need to get everyone outside to defend the ship! Or we need to evacuate immediately!" This was further emphasized by the sound of explosions that rocketed through the forest.

"Sorry about this," Hazel said to the still sleeping but murmuring Cadman. "_Nihil Motus!" _she yelled. Immediately Cadman's body went rigid and he stopped talking. Annabeth broke into a run for the engine room, hitting the "invasion alarm" as she wen't, causing the ship to blare a loud noise like a car alarm. "Leo! Piper! We need to get down to the ground! Percy and Frank need our help!"

Percy drew Riptide from his pocket, and uncapped it. Frank morphed into a rhino and charged headfirst at the crowd of monsters, jets of brown dust shooting into the air whenever he hit a monster. "Aight then," said Percy, "It's showtime." And five geysers erupted from the ground.

It was almost like a dance of bodies. He propelled himself through the crowd slashing, and used the water to blast away any monsters that he didn't want getting too close. He felt an immense rush of power and energy from being in contact with the water. He caused all five streams of water to arc, and slam into the ever pressing crowd. He, more than once, had to divert the water for the sole purpose of protecting himself. He noticed that groups of monsters started to fight each other, and turned to see Piper, (who was charmspeaking the group into fighting itself) followed by Leo, (who was engulfed in flames) Annabeth, (who was holding a contraption that Percy assumed Leo had made) and Hazel, who was using the same odd stick that she'd used against the boulder brothers (that's what Percy was calling them now) and yelling things like "_Acerbum!" _which caused some of the monsters to get blasted back and wail in pain, or sometimes "_Mortem!"_ which caused the monsters to explode into dust. Annabeth caught up with him. "What the hell did you do this time seaweed brain?"

"Er, I started a controversial argument?" Percy said grinning.

"Sure, tell me all about it later, DUCK!" Annabeth yelled, and Percy obliged. Annabeth pointed the device at a bloodhound, and several arrows at once shot out of the end. The monster, as well as a dozen near it, exploded. "Lets go kick some monster butt, wise girl" said Percy, kissing Annabeth lightly on the forehead before turning.

The sunrise bathed the battlefield in a scarlet canopy of light. The six demigods worked together like a well oiled machine. It looked like they were fighting a tidal wave of monsters, and winning. The drakon exploded in a ball of flames from the forest, and leaped into the air, jumping to a height of fifteen feet before crashing down again. Leo had to redirect the stray flames, and returned his own balls of fire into the crowd, as they exploded in a fiery shower of sparks. Percy saw a rhino leap into the air, whilst turning into Frank. Frank flew upward from the momentum and, holding his bow at hand, firing several arrows at the drakon as it jumped once again, casting a shadow over Frank. The arrows hit the monster in the eyes and the nose, and it wailed in pain and started to fall to the ground. Frank morphed into a dragon and body slammed the drakon before it hit the ground, sending it toppling. Frank hovered over the wounded creature, and for a whole minute the only sound that could be heard was the massive flap of wings. Every monster and demigod had their attention turned to the now looming massive dragon, and with one huge burst of fire from Frank, the drakon exploded, but not like most monsters, instead it shattered into golden light and disappeared. Chaos exploded in the field again, and Frank torched a giant area, incinerating another hoard of monsters. Water, fire, arrows, chaos, and blasts of light and wind shook the field. The monsters were dropping in number fast. Two more geysers exploded and Percy willed them to encircle a group of monsters. What he hadn't intended to do was turn the water into shards of ice, that sliced through the group of monsters before turning into water and orbiting the monsters again, repeating until there was nothing left but dust. "What the-" Percy stammered. "I'm not a son of Khione..."

"Heads up fish face!" Yelled Hazel from behind him. Percy turned around and slashed a telkine with Riptide not a second too soon. "Thanks Hazel!" Percy yelled back. Percy looked around at the chaos. The monsters were dropping fast, the crowd dispersed as the demigods grew closer together, forming a line, and wiping out the remainder who tried to flee. One last monster ran away in the distance, and Hazel stepped forward. Suddenly, to the surprise to everyone, she started to become enshrouded in black smoke that seemed blacker than natural, and disappear. At the same time, a cloud of black smoke materialized over the lone wounded hellhound in the distance, and Hazel reappeared over it, raising her golden spatha and pointing the stick weapon thing. In one swift move, the beast was covered in golden chains, and she sliced through it with the sword. Hazel repeated the same process of disappearing and reappearing, and materialized back towards the group. The sun was risen above the horizon now, and the sunlight reflected off her golden sword. "Well, looks like I've got the gist of shadow traveling!" Hazel said happily. There were so many pillars of sand everywhere from the monsters, that it looked as if the field they were in was actually a desert."Come on guys," Percy said, "lets go check on our prisoner." But nobody thought to wonder, where in the world was Jason? Nobody, that is, except for Piper.

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**Well, I hope you enjoyed that! Reviews are very much appreciated, they're like a warm donut in the winter, or applesauce on a warm day, or chocolate ice cream, or- well you get the idea. Also, please tell me what you would like to happen next, I've been wrangling with writers block lately, and I DO have plans for much later on in the story, but stuff in between is open for change!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yeah, I know. I took forever. BUT NEVER FEAR! I have excuses for my lateness. First of all, I blame whoever the Greek god of procrastination is. Secondly, I blame Gmail for not being able to send myself a message over 2,000 characters long. I LOST 3,000 WORDS OF WORK! I had to use my only surviving copy that was in my documents on here, but that's what else I have to blame. Fanfictions copy and past crap. They turned all the formatting into raw code, I mean, anyone who watched me write the story probably could have decoded it, but it was annoying. They put random shiznits down for things such as line breaks, and italics. Oh, and misspelled words, which I guess wouldn't have been too bad. One more person I have to blame, Rick Riodan for making such a good story. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Blood of Olympus for more than 30 minutes. But anyways, to all my dedicated fans, yes, both of them, I present to you this chapter. I would like to note that I made this BEFORE I read The Blood of Olympus, so his powers that were discovered in TBO (The Blood of Olympus) I happened to guess right. There are no spoilers about the book, rest assured.**

**One last thing. I don't quit, often, but there's a problem with my story. Until recently, this was all possible in the Heroes of Olympus universe, but now that the book has come out, expected plot incompatibility have arisen. Though I won't say which ones for the sake of not spoiling anything. This will be my last chapter, but don't worry, I'm planning on making a NEW story that happens AFTER the latest book. I've learned so much from this story and it's been a wonderful experience. Thank you to both of my reviewers and those who favorited this story. I seriously would have kept going if I'd finished it before Rick released his book. But enough of my sap story. Here is my chapter. Enjoy. **

* * *

"Is it just me," Nico said, "or is it suddenly getting very cold?" It wasn't just Nico. The temperature was dropping dramatically. It was so cold that both Lamia and everyone else was already shivering. Nico was able to see his breath. Suddenly the ever growing sound of the police sirens stopped, and he heard a car door being closed in the distance. Nico turned to Lamia. "What gave you the impression that it would be a good idea to take the powers of a son of Hades away?"

"Lamia laughed, and Nico had to hold back a scowl. "Please, do you honestly think I'm powerful enough to block your abilities? No, foolish pawn. Somebody else has done that for you, and ironically, that person needs your help. But no, I on the other hand am the reason Mrs. Athena here has run away skipping into the town of Rome. That robot is coming with me, the gods will destroy each other, and I will finally have my revenge."

"Why does everyone want revenge these days?" Reyna said.  
"She had a point. Nico remembered that he himself had also wanted revenge for a long period of time.  
"Look, Lamia, there are two things that can be done here. I can slice you in half, and we'll be on our merry way, or you can leave, and we'll be on our way, not as happily, but still pretty smug."  
"Right, go ahead. Throw your half hearted threats at me, throw a fit and try to beat me up like the hot headed gods would do. Does the son of even on of the Big Three lose his cool so easily?" Said Lamia.  
Nico's voice was deadly calm.

"Even if you managed to kill me, you'd be stuck here." Lamia said, not a hint of emotion in her voice.  
"But what I really would like to know, is why you're helping the gods? They've done nothing for you in return, even when you try to save their lives. Everyone has an issue with the gods, so why are there still people like you helping them? Hera killed my children out of pure jealousy. If that wasn't enough, she cursed me to roam the earth as a monster hunting all children I find. Considering that you are children, and you're working for Gaea, I find that it's a win win for me. But enough about my life story, what have the gods done to you?"  
Lamia had struck a nerve. However Nico was interrupted when he heard several people behind him, one of them spoke something in Italian that Nico could only understand because he'd grown up here in Italy. "Put your hands up and drop the weapon!"  
"Lets take our fight somewhere else." Nico said turning from Lamia and facing the mortals. Nico waved his hand as if dismissing them, and suddenly they began to change. They all started to hunch over, their hair turned white, and they started to wave their hands in front of their faces as if they couldn't see. They were aging a million times faster than usual. Then it stopped, and they all looked like they'd aged several decades.  
"What's going on!" one said in a disgruntled voice. They all started to hobble around looking for their things.

Reyna looked at him, horrified. "What did you do Nico! The mortals aren't our enemy!"  
"Nico shrugged. "They were pointing those annoying guns at my face. You know how I feel about guns, Reyna. Besides, all I did was decrease their lifespan." Before Reyna could say any more, Nico jumped to the side dodging Lamia. Lamia's appearance had changed. Her eyes were completely back, she had fangs instead of teeth, and she had talons for fingernails. Instead of having legs, she had one snake trunk, similar to a Scythian Dracaenae.  
"Don't get too excited Lamia." Nico said, as if he hadn't just nearly had his head taken off. Lamia ignored him and slashed the air with her talons again. Nico dodged the attack just as easily, but her talons just barely took of a strand of hair. Nico watched it fall to the ground, and then turned to Lamia.  
"Do you have any idea how long I spend every morning?" Nico asked Lamia.  
This question actually caught Lamia off guard, and she stopped her pursuit for a second.  
"Wait, no I don't, how long?"  
Nico stabbed at her with his sword nonchalantly, talking in between swiping and dodging. "Only like five minutes, but still, it's hard to come by such naturally wavy hair you know."  
Lamia seemed to realize that Nico was distracting her, and tried to pull off a feint. She pretended to go for Nico's head, and then changed direction for his torso at the last second. Nico didn't see it coming until it was too late to block, but then he tried to doge in a way he'd only done once before. Nico spun in a circle, turning his back to Lamia while stepping close to her. He continued to move in a circle as her hand swiped the air where Nico had been. Nico was now behind Lamia, and he continued spinning until he was facing her back. He then kicked, hard. Lamia screamed and fell, turning around and slashing. Nico took this opportunity to bolt for a nearby coffee shop to get out of the open. More of the Italian police were close by, and Nico didn't want to mess with any more mortals today. But his desire to leave the mortals behind proved to be too much to ask, because when he closed the door of the coffee shop and turned around, he saw several scared looking mortals staring at him. "Um," Nico said in Italian, "can I borrow this?" Nico said taking a cup of coffee out of a mans hand and handing the man a gold coin. The man stared at the gold, a wild look in his eyes.

"You have many names Nico Di Angelo." Said Lamia, entering the shop. "And they all point back to one boy. It wasn't hard to track you down. Everyone seems to know you by one of your many titles names. 'The Ghost King' 'The Boy in the Shadows' 'Prince of Darkness' 'The Ambassador of Pluto, you know, with all your gloomy names you might mistakenly give somebody the impression that you're an emo kid with issues."

"Nico took a seat at one of the tables and took a sip of the coffee. It was disgusting. That imbecile had let his coffee get cold, and there was NO sugar or cream. Nico missed Brazil already, their coffee was much better than this. "An emo kid with issues, demigod, same thing." Said Nico brightly, as if purposefully changing his tone to contradict the sentence. Nico realized the glass windows of the shop were starting to fog up, and some of the mortals behind him were shivering. Nico looked around at the shadowy shop. Dark wood and simple wooden furniture with old looking cushions. It smelled like rich coffee, unlike what Nico was sipping on now. There were candles all around the room where the sunlight couldn't reach, giving half of the shop the look of a castle bedroom at night, and the other like a house on the beach. Nico couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting for half a second at the thought of a house... On a beach...

Nico almost jumped when Lamia slammed her hand down at the table, glaring at him. Suddenly Nico got an idea. _A shadow is an illusion created by light not passing through an object that takes a certain shape. But few shadows are truly void of light. Just as light can bend around the curvature of the earth, what if I could bend light around shadows?_ Nico attempted to get a feel for the wavelengths in the light. What colors he would need, how much light he'd need to bend. Concentrating the hardest he'd ever had in his life, his ears started to bus, and Nico saw his hands disappear. Looking up at Lamia, he had to suppress a chuckle at the look of astonishment on her face. Nico was bending the light from behind him to the front of him, making an image of everything behind him cover Nico like a cloak. It was like he was a news reporter who wrapped herself in a green screen. Nico slowly got up, leaving the disgusting coffee behind. Lamia started to scream and destroy tables and chairs, sending mortals running and screaming. "Fine Nico Di Angelo! If I can't kill a demigod child today," said Lamia turning toward a five year old girl with blonde hair wearing a blue dress, "then at least one of these mortals will die!" Nico didn't think, he did. Immediately uncloaking himself, he ran at Lamia dropping his sword. Before Lamia could react, Nico extended a three fingered claw toward Lamia, then turned it to himself and drew it toward his heart. Nico concentrated on controlling something easier than the shadows, death. Lamia seemed paralyzed and looked at Nico in horror. Suddenly her brown hair started to grey, and she hunched over and fell to the floor, yelling in pain. Suddenly she started to glow blue, and a column of blue light extended from her body, and she went limp. Lamia started to shake, and her face turned red as if she was suffocating.

The the little girl that was standing next to Nico put her hand on Nico's shoulder. "Why is the lizard girl mad at me?" Nico's eyes went wide and he immediately stopped. _Why did I stop?_ Nico thought. Three reasons. One, he was killing a monster in front of a five year old girl, the girl in question could see through the mist, and she had just made him realize who the real enemy was. If he killed Lamia she'd just die and come back later and be a danger to more demigods. The only thing that made Lamia dangerous was the curse that Hera placed on her. In a flash of light the blue column of light whipped back into Lamia's body, and she turned over sideways, gasping for air.

"Because Hera forced her to be..." Nico said, answering the little girls question. Lamia looked up, and for a second the pleading the expression in her black eyeballs seemed human.  
"Maybe I don't need to kill you, even though I really want to, Lamia. But if you ever attack a mortal child again, you'll pay a price so steep that you'll wish you were back in Tartarus." Nico was bluffing of course. He was capable of torturing Lamia to such an extend, but he wasn't that heartless, despite the annoying "Son of Hades stereotype." Nico pulled Lamia to her feat and put a three fingered claw shape he made with his hands on her forehead.

Suddenly everything went dark. Nico was standing in a void, on some invisible floor. Nico's gazed drifted upward. Nico felt his heart melting. It was beautiful. It was like there were a million stars flashing to and from in the space above him. Golden lights. They shot around at incredible speed. _It's a neuron._ Nico thought. Nico was telepathically logged into Lamia's brain. Here was every memory, every skill, every breath she had ever taken. This was her entire being, her soul. This was what the spirits in the Fields of Asphodel lacked. They kept their spirits, but their souls were gone. The dammed souls in the Fields of Punishment got to keep their souls, but lost their spirit, their freedom. They lived in a shell of pain that trapped them. Nico imagined what it would look like if the shells broke. It would be like watching a million sparks fly away, finally free from their eternal torture. Nico thought about how he'd got here. He remembered why he was here. _Find the curse, rewrite her soul, get out, get some coffee, go save Camp Halfblood._ Nico looked around and saw that there were a few red lights shooting through the branching yellow. That marked where the brain had been altered, and it was done by a goddess. Nico tried to take a step, but realized that it felt like he was underwater, and walking was nearly impossible. So Nico started to swim upwards. Nico was halfway to the red light when he slammed into something that felt like concrete. "Dammit," Nico said, frustrated, " _she set up security. Maybe it's a wall put in place by the gods, but you've outsmarted a god before, and Hera is an idiot anyways_. Nico imagined that the wall was opening, trying to control Lamia's mind with his own thoughts. The wall started to open a little bit, then it slammed closed and started to pulsate red light. Nico heard Lamia scream in pain outside, and had to refocus his concentration so that his consciousness wouldn't leave Lamia._ Hmm, she set up a pain trap. Very clever. Well all pain traps have weaknesses, but unfortunately this is going to hurt. A lot actually._ Nico put his hand on the wall, and willed the pain to be redirected toward himself. Nico was suddenly the one screaming in pain, as he willed all the power from the shield to course through his own mind. The wall started to flicker, but so did Nico's state of consciousness. _Come on Nico, you can do this. Just a little longer and there will be one less evil monster in the world_. Nico felt himself slipping. Suddenly the image of Percy popped up in his mind. S_tay awake Nico!_  
Percy said to him. Nico felt a rush of energy and pushed forward, shattering the shield. Nico continued swimming. Nico finally reached the red pulsating light. Nico willed the one brain connection to die. Suddenly the water around him bubbled and the light faded to black. Finally, the connection crumbled into dust, and died.

Nico opened his eyes and took his hand off of Lamia's forehead. He was drenched in sweat, and felt like his limbs had turned to noodles. He felt nauseated, so he sat down. The monster in front of him fell to her knees and looked down at her talons. She felt her serpent trunk, and then touched her face.

"I'm sorry Lamia, I can't change what Hera has done to your physical appearance or the fact that you still have the spirit of a monster. When you die your still going to Tartarus. But on the bright side you'll come back sooner or later." Lamia looked straight at Nico and hugged him, crying.

"Thank you." She said quietly, pulling away and wiping the tears from her eyes. "I care not how I look or where I go when I die. Now I have a choice in what I do, and for that, there is nothing I could do to express my gratitude. For now, I look and die like a monster, but I do not act like one."

Lamia's accent was incredibly old, and Nico wondered how long she'd been cursed. How many children she'd killed. "How did you do it Son of Hades?"

Nico shrugged, but then laid down because of how tired he was. "The same thing the gods did to you. I established a temporary empathy link. You and I were close enough to friends for it to work in that fraction of a second. When I showed you mercy, you showed me gratitude. Then I was able to find where Hera tampered with your mind and reverse it. It would have been infinitely easier if I were a child of Dionysus though, they deal with psychological disorders."

Lamia stood up. "You are the first demigod in history to show kindness to a monster and save it. The child of the god of death, sets a historical moment of peace. I have to go now, but I promise that I have found a new calling. In honor of you saving that little girl, I will dedicate the rest of eternity to protecting mortals from monsters."

She walked over to the fire exit of the shop. Before she left, she looked back toward Nico. "You know Nico, you've taught me something today. You've proved to me that monsters can be kind, even when they are faced with danger." And with that, she left out the door. Nico had the feeling that she wasn't talking about herself when she said "monster." Nico turned to face the little girl, but she was gone. Nowhere to be seen in the shop. That was what Nico thought, but then he looked down to where she had been standing, and there was a shard of yellow glass, slowly dissolving into powdery light and drifting out the window. Nico thought it might have just been his imagination, but then he heard her voice whisper into his mind. _I will see you again. Don't eat the fruit._

3:00 A.M. The next day.

Thunder boomed overhead. It was lucky the Athena Parthenos was waterproof. As it was, they'd all been able to find a nice enough alleyway to sleep in. The robot had been able to shut down for the night, but for some reason had taken a large tarp and grabbed each end of it and spread it over her back. Nico thought that it looked like she was making some sort of rain tarp, but hadn't covered her head. When it had started to rain in the middle of the night, they'd all huddled under the tarp. Where it was dry. The robot had turned it's heating system on, so it was also warm. It was weird in the way that it felt like a robot was mothering them, but the group had been too tired to care much. Well, the group minus Nico.

Nico wasn't able to fall back to sleep after it had started to rain. Nico wondered if "The Seven" had made it to Mount Olympus yet. Nico wished it was daytime, so he could iris message the group and tell them that somebody was blocking his shadow traveling powers, as well as the fact that the Athena Parthenos was a robot now. But most of all, he wanted to tell Percy to be careful, and that Polyphemus was planning on drowning him in blood. Nico was sickened at the thought of Percy somehow drowning. It seemed like sacrilege to drown a son of Poseidon. Nico stood up, for once appreciative of his ghostly quiet footsteps, and walked carefully out of the tarp and under a ledge of an apartment complex. Nico looked up to the other complex on the other side of the alley. There was a middle aged man standing on one of the ledges smoking. _It seems like an apartment complex is never complete without that one guy smoking on the ledge._ Now that he thought of it, Nico couldn't remember ever seeing an apartment complex where there wasn't at least one guy on the ledge smoking. Nico came to the end of the alley. Beyond him was a street that was usually busy. They were far away from the area where the robot had caused so much destruction, though Nico was sure his face would be on wanted posters all over Italy. Huge plumes of smoke were rising in the distance where they'd entered the city. _Italy looks so different than it did when I grew up here,_ thought Nico. Nico sighed and wondered for the millionth time what his life would be like if he hadn't been put in the Lotus Hotel, if Zeus hadn't taken his mother from him. . . Nico choked back anger and tears and kept walking.

The once busy streets of Rome seemed to sleep at night. Cars were packed along the side walks. Nico turned the corner and exited the alley, ducking underneath another ledge. Finally he found the place he was looking for. It was a clothing shop, it's name was written in Italian. Nico struggled with dyslexia to read it. Bob's clothes and more! It said. Nico took his sword out of it's sheath. Flicking his finger upwards, a zombie shot out of the ground. "Hold these" Nico commanded. The zombie obliged. It was weaker than a zombie that he could summon with Diocletian's scepter, but he'd left that back with the robot, and besides, without Reyna there, he could only control one or two at a time if he kept his focus on it. Besides, the scepter was only good for organizing complex tasks. Nico stepped into the shop. It was hilariously small, about the size of a large tool shed. On either side of him there were clothing racks, and in between the racks was the narrow space that Nico stood in. Up ahead, the shop ended abruptly with a long desk that had a cash register on it. There was a small space in between the desk and the wall where Nico assumed the employees could use to get to the storage rooms. Nico walked through the clothing racks, not really looking for anything except an excuse to get to the changing rooms, where he knew there would be a mirror. Nico wanted to test something. Maybe he didn't need Iris to send a message, maybe all he needed was to pull in some favors.

Nico finally found a relatively nice shirt. It was just a regular black t-shirt with no words on it. Nico didn't have any mortal money to pay for it, but he wasn't here to buy clothes. Nico walked up to the front desk and looked around. There was a silver bell on the desk. Nico dinged it experimentally. Beyond the desk were two hallways. One was labeled "employees only" and another was labeled "changing rooms." Nico heard footsteps coming from "employees only." A small man in a denim overall over top of a white t-shirt appeared. He had a bad comb over and his teeth were yellow. "What can I help you with?" said the man. "Could I try this on?" said Nico in Italian. The man grunted and pointed to the changing room. Nico walked in and closed the door, locking it.  
Nico dropped the shirt he was holding and faced the mirror. _First thing,_ thought Nico. Nico held his hand out toward the mirror, and it turned completely back. Nico kicked the black mirror, and felt the crunching of broken glass. _No sound, that's good_. Nico watched as shards of broken glass fell to the ground soundlessly. Nico waved his hand and the glass turned reflective again, the shadows creeping back to the walls. Nico picked up a piece of glass and tried the light manipulation from before. This time he was very easily able to cloak himself in the image behind him, like a chameleon. His reflection disappeared. Nico wanted to try something a little more extreme. For the next twenty minutes Nico practiced bending the light reflecting off his body. He managed to project an image of himself. It was like a reflection was standing there without a mirror. Nico was able to do this, and got farther each time, but he was starting to give up hope. _At this rate it'll take me years to project an image of myself that far._ But maybe he didn't need to. Nico covered the glass shards in shadow and again got another idea. He tried to... Will the shards to dissolve into darkness. It was easier to do than he thought. It felt just like shadow traveling other people if he wasn't with them. There was one difference though. The glass felt. . . Dead. Nico remembered how Cassius had died, how he'd shattered into golden light. Nico imagined an apple, and the shadows shattered into darkness and started to clump together in the shape of an apple. The apple started to take shape and texture, but when it finally formed, it was a rotten apple. Nico kicked the apple and watched it shatter back into darkness. "Interesting." Nico said. Nico tried to take all the glass and form an animal. He started with a small mouse, but only got an undead mouse's corpse. He stepped on the squeaking zombie and it shattered again. _What makes a mirror so special?_ thought Nico. Nico then remembered something he'd overheard mortal children saying while he was on one of his journeys. "Did you know that if you face a mirror and turn around three times saying 'Bloody Marry' three times, Blood Marry will appear and through a knife at you?"  
"Shut up, that's not true!"  
"It is too! I read it in my mum's book!"

At the time, Nico thought the idea was silly. A tale used to scare little kids. But know he was reconsidering it. Nico remembered all the times he looked into a mirror and felt like he was seeing a whole new world. Mirrors had the ability to carry light, darkness, death, and life. Nico remembered a legend of a man who was cursed for all eternity to sit at a pond admiring his reflection all day. Nico now understood how they must've done it. Nico willed all the glass pieces on the floor to rearrange themselves on the wall and seal together. When the shadows faded he was facing a mirror again. Maybe Bloody Marry is a soul trapped in the Fields of Punishment. Nico turned around three times, saying the words "Bloody Marry" three times. When he turned to face the mirror again he grinned to see a frightened women glaring at him. She was holding a knife in one of her hands. She was wearing a plain white dress, but it was torn in areas. It was splattered in blood, and Nico saw that her teeth were rotten black. She looked like she'd been crying.

"What do you want with me, child of Death!?" She hissed.  
"I need to send a message." Nico replied in a bored voice.  
"Why should I help you?!" She yelled back.  
"Eternity is already a long time to be tortured, how would you like for me to relieve you of your suffering for a few hours whenever you run missions for me?"  
Bloody Marry looked at him hungrily and fell to her knees. "I beg of you! I will do whatever you wish, master!" Nico had to keep pity from crawling into his heart. He'd always despised the fact that his father would ever put anyone in the Fields of Punishment. He had gone to visit there a few times, mostly to change the punishments that were given to some of the victims. Nico had once seen a man was to be boiled in vinegar for eternity, and he ordered that his sentence be changed to eternity in a classroom, listening to his least favorite lecture forever. The man had hugged Nico afterwards. Nico had changed a lot from his travels. His stomach hardened by the gory scenes of the Underworld, and his moral values crumbling at the sight of so much suffering. Nico hadn't been to the Underworld in over a year, but he'd instead visited Tartarus, which was arguably worse, but at least the monsters there got to get out and breathe every once and awhile.

"Master?" said Bloody Marry.

"Ah yes," replied Nico. "First thing's first, please, call me Nico. Second, I need you to send a message to Perseus Jackson. Try not to scare him too much."

* * *

On his way back to the camp, Nico remembered the man who had been standing on the ledge. "Eh, what the hell, I'm in a good mood tonight." Said Nico.

Nico climbed along the fire escape ladder and onto the ledge where the man had been. It smelled strongly of acrid cigarette smoke. Nico grinned when he saw that he'd left the door open. Nico walked inside and found the man sleeping next to his wife in their bedroom. I wish this didn't come across as so damn creepy. Nico thought, grimacing. Nico walked over to the man and extended three fingers in the shape of a claw towards the man's forehead. Nico was suddenly standing in a void. Nico looked up and saw all the flying connections and thoughts and memories. Nico saw one area was jammed. There were a million lights all stuck in one area. All sorts of crap that shouldn't have been there. Such as, doing the dishes, coming home from work, brushing my teeth, making my bed, and dropping the kids off at school. They were all piled around one area, the thought of smoking.  
But that's basically what addictions look like. No matter what you do, you always are reminded of what you need for your fix. The simplest things can become triggers for the want. It would take years of ignoring it to slowly, oh ever so slowly unclog the area. A million times you would have to resist the strong urge, over and over. Nico believed that it was possible to overcome that kind of addiction with shear willpower, but Nico was in a good mood, so he was going to speed time up a little.  
Nico drifted over to the area in the man's mind. On the way he saw what the cigarette addiction was costing him. His teeth, his skin, his lungs, his family. So many medical and financial issues. Nico finally arrived. Nico willed the thought of smoking, the dopamine associated with it, to die. Nico watched the light's fade out, and the clog rush away, like a river that had suddenly been cleared.

* * *

**There you have it, my final chapter of this story. If you would like to know where I was really going with this story before Blood of Olympus came out, message me and I'll you. It might be interesting. My new story is going to be really cool though. Anyways, I had a blast. Thanks for everything.**

**Smiles! :D**


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